Columnist.
White House aides were reaching for the Maalox [Tuesday] as their messaging strategy clearly went off the tracks. While Obama was in Paris this week marshaling world leaders to tackle the threat of climate change, his top defense chiefs were on Capitol Hill asserting that Islamic terrorism is a greater danger to our country. During a House Armed Services Committee hearing [Tuesday], Rep. Ryan Zinke, a retired Navy Seal commander, asked Secretary of Defense Ash Carter whether ISIS and other Islamic terrorist groups represented the most imminent and dangerous threat facing the country today.
The debate over whether Muslims in America celebrated during the 9/11 attacks continues. The Trump campaign [Tuesday] produced a New York Post column written by Professor Fred Siegel three days after the 9/11 attacks. (How is it that none of the fact checkers and media mavens could find it?)
I joined more than 60 conservative leaders today in the Conservative Action Project (CAP) calling on Congress to take action addressing the potential national security threats posed by the insufficient vetting of Syrian refugees. ... We outlined compassionate approaches that mitigate the security risks that currently exist. Meanwhile, doubts are growing in Europe about the wisdom of taking in hundreds of thousands of unvetted migrants, mostly from Islamic countries. German authorities are reporting that many Muslim migrants are seeking out Arab language mosques, some of which are known to be havens for Islamic extremists.
Being thankful in the midst of adversity is often hard to do. Many Americans are still struggling in the wake of the Great Recession. The headlines of the past week highlight the tremendous challenges we face at home and abroad. Yet we still have much to be thankful for, and we still need God's blessing and hand of protection upon our nation. For these reasons, I pray this year's Thanksgiving truly lives up to its name — a time when we give thanks to God (not government) for the blessings we enjoy.
There is little doubt that the world has become a more dangerous place since Barack Obama became president. The Nobel Committee should demand its Peace Prize back. As America retreats, our enemies fill the void. There is news [from Tuesday] that a Russian jet was shot down by Turkish fighters. Turkey is a member of NATO, and it claims that the Russian jet repeatedly violated Turkish airspace. [Yesterday's] action reportedly marks the first time NATO has shot down a Russian aircraft since the 1950s.
According to a new Fox News poll, 83% of Americans think it is likely that ISIS will attempt to attack America in the near future. President Obama's refusal to acknowledge and counter the threats facing the United States and Western Civilization is likely contributing to the fear and anxiety that Americans are feeling. There is less and less trust even in some corners of the left that Obama is capable or willing to steer the ship of state through these storm-filled waters.
Despite President Obama's veto threats, a bi-partisan, veto-proof majority of the House of Representatives voted yesterday to approve legislation demanding more security checks on refugees from Syria and Iraq. In a major rebuke to Obama, 47 House Democrats sided with the GOP majority in supporting this bill. Now consider this excerpt from the beltway publication The Hill: "The Obama administration's eleventh-hour bid to rally Democrats against Syrian refugee legislation backfired on Thursday... A number of Democrats who were on the fence about the bill decided to vote yes after hearing administration officials make the case against it."
French authorities confirmed [Thursday] morning that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the jihadist behind the Paris attacks, has been killed. He also planned the August train attack that was foiled by three Americans. I am glad Abaaoud has received justice. But neither he nor any other individual is the creator of radical Islam. The threat didn't end after Osama bin Laden was killed and it won't end with the death of Abaaoud. Jihadists are being created every day in radical mosques throughout the Middle East, Europe and, sadly, even in the U.S.
The Paris attacks exposed not only the vulnerabilities of free societies and weaknesses in our immigration, refugee and security policies, but also the insanity of the left-wing mind. For example, Secretary of State John Kerry suggested [Tuesday] that there was some "rationale" behind the January attacks on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters.
An angry president went after his enemies [Monday], passionately denouncing those who suggested that if we are going to take more Syrian refugees, they should be Christians. "[T]hat's shameful. That's not American. That's not who we are. We don't have religious tests to our compassion," he said. In fact, Obama's refugee policy does appear to have a religious test — one that seems to discriminate AGAINST Christians. At the beginning of the Syrian civil war, 10% of the population was Christian, but only 2.4% of the Syrian refugees are Christian. How can this be?
On Thursday, President Obama said this about ISIS: "We have contained them. I don't think they're gaining strength." Twenty-four hours later, ISIS massacred and wounded hundreds of people in Paris. At 5:45 ET Friday evening, Obama took to the airwaves again and said this about the supposedly contained ISIS: "This is an attack not just on Paris, it's an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share."
It's Friday the 13th and the GOP is afraid, very afraid. I know because The Washington Post told me so. A front page article this morning says that the party elders are hitting the "panic button" and see "doom" ahead if the leading "outsiders" — Donald Trump or Dr. Ben Carson — get the GOP nomination. Some of the insiders are so afraid that they are reportedly talking once again about drafting Mitt Romney to run again in spite of his repeated statements that he won't do so.
There is a thought-provoking article [...] in The Wall Street Journal written by political commentator and analyst Michael Barone on the reliability of polls. ... Barone raises the real possibility that polls are increasingly flawed and unreliable. Just in the last week we saw polling in the Kentucky governor's race and the Houston battle over transgender men in ladies bathrooms that were way off from the final results. The Gallup polling organization is so worried that there is a flaw in modern polling techniques that it won't conduct presidential primary polls this cycle.
[Wednesday was] Veterans Day — a day set aside to recognize the courage and sacrifice of the men and women who have served our country in uniform. The day originally began as Armistice Day to mark the 11 AM ceasefire on November 11, 1918 that ended World War I. Congress voted to change the name to Veterans Day in 1954 to commemorate veterans of all wars.
Many American universities have become hotbeds of political correctness, racial identification politics, anti-Americanism and, increasingly, anti-Semitism. At the University of Missouri, racial grievance politics is thriving. On Monday the university's system president and the chancellor of the flagship campus were forced to resign. For what? I've read two dozen articles about the "controversy" and in all honesty haven't been able to identify anything either of them did wrong. Some students have been complaining about an atmosphere on campus that's hostile to black students. (Among the protestors is the student body president, who is black. Apparently, the atmosphere there is friendly enough toward black students for him to be elected student body president.)
Big media has zeroed in on Carson because he is the new frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination. They're also targeting him because he is a man of faith and, let's be honest, because he is a black conservative. Recent polling shows Carson would get 20 percent of the African American vote against Hillary Clinton, a result that would devastate her election chances and destroy the whole left wing narrative about race.
The day after Hillary Rodham Clinton became secretary of state in 2009, she signed a contract with the American people, not figuratively, but literally. She signed a Sensitive Compartmented Information Nondisclosure Agreement — a contract acknowledging that she held a very special position that would put her in possession of extremely important information. Information that had to be handled with the utmost care.
As you know, my wife, Carol, prepares a prayer alert about once a month. I hope you will share Carol's thoughts with your friends and fellow worshippers. Thank you for taking an interest in her monthly devotion.
Intelligence information increasingly suggests that a bomb brought down Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 over the Sinai Peninsula, killing 224 people. ISIS, which is known to be operating in the area, was quick to claim responsibility. The region is extremely popular with tourists, but the Sharm el-Sheikh airport is reportedly well-known for its lax security. It is believed that ISIS operatives smuggled a bomb on board the plane at the airport.
Several states and localities held off-year elections [Tuesday]. Here's a brief summary of the major contests.
